How to Set Up the New Hire
for Success
Part 1
The economy appears to be improving and, for some, job prospects are starting to look up. As a supervisor, you may see a new face or two as your company relaxes the hiring freeze.
Does that conger up images of your first day on a job?
Remember how you were stumped by an aspect of your new responsibilities? Or perhaps you caused some extra rework or created scrap? When your boss corrected you and your work, maybe you liked the way he did it and maybe you didn’t.
Well, guess what? Any new worker assigned to you is going to feel the same way starting a job. Why? That individual wants to make a positive impression.
Last week, in the booth behind me at Denny’s, the restaurant manager was interviewing a potential new employee, a man in his late 30s. I wasn’t eavesdropping, but I was thinking that a public restaurant really wasn’t a smart place for a manager to interview someone. From the snippets of conversation I heard, the guy was trying to put on a good show to impress his prospective boss.
As the former operations manager of a farm equipment manufacturing company, I know I hope to get at least 4 things from new employees—and I am sure you want the same.
- Get them up to the quality and quantity requirements of the position as quickly as possible.
- Avoid accidents on the job.
- Avoid damaging the equipment.
- Spoil as little of the product as possible.
The question is How do you achieve those goals?
If you are like me, you want to jump right in and start instructing or correcting a worker without much thought or plan.
è Instructing an employee the correct way takes just a little extra time
at the beginning. That can save the company literally thousands of dollars
later on.
The following plan is simple, and it works.
- Take a few minutes to look at 4 pre-arrival points—before the person arrives.
- When instructing the person about the job, follow 4 basic steps.
In “How to Set Up the New Hire for Success, Part 1,” we look at the 4 pre-arrival points.
1. Create a table
- How much skill do you expect the person to have?
- By what date?
- In boxes across the top of the table, list the jobs you supervise.
- Put the names of your workers down the left column.
- Put a checkmark in the boxes that indicate the jobs the respective workers are able to do.
That will tell you the training needs required for the new person. To help you gauge how the new employee is doing, set a timeframe for the training. Training for current employees is also a great way to increase productivity.
- Define the job
List the important steps of the job. If the key things are done right, the whole operation is right. If any one of them is missed, the operation is wrong.
Giving instructions to a worker when he starts the job affords him a greater chance of getting it right the first time; he is less likely to fight the work and make mistakes that cause accidents, scraps, delays, and damage to equipment.
So you don’t miss any of the important steps along the way, the best place to create your list is on the job. It probably will take you all of 3 to 5 minutes to make the list.
- Have everything ready
That means from day one, the employee has the right equipment, materials, and supplies to do the job. When you so much as touch a job in front of an employee, you must set a good example. Don’t use the wrong tool, don’t fumble, don’t make excuses, don’t miss a step. When you do everything right, the new person is more likely to do the same.
- Have the workplace properly arranged
Have it set up exactly the way you expect the worker to keep it. Have the person’s workstation, bench, desk, or area in proper order before you hand over the reins. The worker won’t do it if you don’t do it.
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I have gone into many businesses that do none of the above in preparation—a new employee is simply thrown into the mix. The work is done by trial and error and, more often than not, error seems to win the day. When asked how the new person is making out, the supervisor may offer a vague response because he simply doesn’t know.
Recently, a new employee was starting in a company I was visiting. The new person was directed to an empty cubicle and expected to “set it up.” Well, how does that work when the person doesn’t know what is needed or where to go to get it?
Taking the time to work through the above steps will go a long way to help the new employee feel more comfortable in those first few days. It also will help the person reach full potential more quickly.
Caution:
If the person you hire for the job doesn’t have the right aptitude for the position, all your pre-arrival and instruction work will be wasted.
Solution:
Take the time now to determine not only the what of the job, but also the who . . . the characteristics of the person who can really fill the bill. A great tool you can use before hiring is CRG’s Job Style Indicator.
CRG’s Values Preference Indicator and Self-Worth Inventory.
Yours truly,
Neal Diamond
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